Equity Briefing Lookers Lamprell and FactSet

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Lookers

Lookers is scheduled to release its 2020 results this morning after having to delay the publication to provide more time for the auditing process to be completed. This will plug the gap between the interim results for 2020, which showed revenue plunged and it entered the red, and the first-quarter of 2021, when its dealerships remained closed because of lockdown.

Analysts are expecting annual revenue to fall to £4.09 billion from £4.79 billion but for its underlying operating profit to rise to £43.3 million from £36.5 million. However, at the bottom-line, it is expected to sink to a reported pretax loss of £11.9 million from a £45.5 million profit.

Still, with 2020 now firmly behind us, the focus will be on how Lookers has performed since its dealerships reopened and the outlook as things start to normalise.

The company said in May that trading had been strong since branches reopened on April 12 and that margins had improved thanks to its cost-cutting efforts. Lookers reported 26.6% like-for-like growth in new car sales in the first four months of 2021 and 32.5% growth in used vehicles. That prompted it to say that it anticipated annual underlying pretax profit to come in significantly better than the £40 million expected by markets at the time.

Lamprell

Lamprell will also release results for 2020 today after having to delay them whilst it negotiated new banking facilities for its three new business units following the recent restructuring, which will be under the spotlight this morning. It now has three distinct divisions, one serving the renewables industry, another oil and gas, and the third focusing on its digital products and services.

Analysts are expecting revenue to jump to $345.0 million from $260.5 million and for it to post Ebitda of just under $1 million compared to the $64.6 million loss booked the year before. More attention will be paid on how it is currently performing after it said in January that trading was steadily improving after being heavily disrupted by the pandemic, which it hopes can set it up for growth in 2021.

FactSet

Meanwhile, FactSet Research will release third-quarter results before US markets open later today.

Everything was headed in the right direction when the company, which provides financial information, released its last update. Revenue grew, margins improved, the value of its annual subscribers expanded, and the company rewarded shareholders with a larger buyback programme and higher dividend.

Analysts are expecting quarterly revenue to rise to $397.9 million from $374.1 million the year before, but for diluted EPS to edge down to $2.58 from $2.63.

Watch for any changes to its guidance that is aiming to deliver organic annual subscription value growth of $70 million to $85 million over the full year and for revenue of between $1.57 billion to $1.58 billion, with EPS of $10.05 to $10.45.

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